We have our Bossa Nova 445 since two month now. Soon I'll share my humble experiences since I received it from Portoroz as well as few improvements we made on the boat.

Now we are sailing at south of Turkey. I have few questions concerning reefing system and sail triming. First of all I'm not really convinced about the second reefing. When the pulley is away from the boom the sail feels baggy. When I'm pulling it down the pulley is touching the boom and the pulley is getting damaged. Ant suggestion?

An other question is about the place of the reefing lines. I guess they should pull the outhaul of the sail to the end of the boom. Is that right? Because when I received the boat it was at the opposite direction.

Finally I have a last question about sail trimming. When the TWA is like150 the main sail is strongly touching the spreader. It's damaging the main sail. Any suggestion?

Hi,A) the stern attachment to the reefed main looks wrong, but without more general pictures I cannot suggest anything besides the fact that a block is needed.B) the main touching the spreaders is NORMAL. You just have to glue some protective layers on top of the main to protect it. Several sets are needed (for not furled main, forf once reefed main,...

In photo 1, there is an eye on the mast just near the boom. Your reefing line should go through this eye and then go down the mast to the block at the foot of the mast. If you do this, the block will only be pulled down as far as the eye and will not hit the boom.

The reefing lines in your third and fourth photos are wrong. One line goes to the end of the boom as you have it, but after it has gone through the cringle hole in the sail it should go VERTICALLY down to the boom and be tied around the boom with a bowline knot.

The sail against the spreader is normal. If you mark the position and then take the sail to a sailmaker, he can sew patches on the sail to protect it.

Referring to picture#1, the short strap connecting the sail to the block is too long. I suggest to rig it "double" so that it's length is halved. In this way you will not need to pull the block so close to the boom.

In addition: on my boat the reefing line at the front of the sale is attached to the D-shackle, not the O-ring, as you show on your picture. I am not sure which setup is correct, but in your picture it looks like you can almost pull the D-shackle to through the sail, which then would be the wrong set up. And indeed as Panos said, the strap between the D-shackle and O-ring is quite long, and then by adding the block, the reefing eye is too far off from the boom, creating a bad sail shape. The reefing eye needs to be close to the boom.

In my case, the boat was delivered with no blocks attached at the reefing lines at all. I am not sure that that is correct?

In your picture there is a loop on the front of the lazy bag ( or is it just the batten end)I have a loop with a line attached to this which goes around the mast & back to the corresponding loop the other sideIt helps the lazy bag to sit up better when sail is hoistedPanos has suggested a block on the leech. Some sailmakers will provide this with the sail & this will workHowever, i do not have this & i found that the weight of a loose block tended to make the leech flutter But this may not happen to you as your mainsail is somewhat bigger

In case you haven't resolved your problem of reefing and assuming you have corrected the way the reefing lines are supposed to be fitted as Charles has pointed out, I have found that unless you have an upgraded vang with a gas strut that is able to lift the boom to about 5 degrees ABOVE the horizontal when reefing, it is necessary to head into wind, release the mainsheet which pulls the boom down, release the kicker/vang which does the same, release the backstay and then reef. Marking the main halyard is a huge help. Winching the reefing line down to the boom after releasing the main halyard to the mark will ensure that you get the clew right down to the boom. This method works for both reefs. The downside is that the jib flogs which is not ideal.

I think that the gas on our upgraded vang needs to be refilled. Once this has been done, there should be no need to have to head directly into wind. I am hoping to be able to reef without having the jib flog.

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot create polls in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forum